GIVE DAD THE GIFT OF DONOVAN’S WORLD CLASS SERVICEOPEN 3PM - 9 PM, SUNDAY, JUNE 16, 2013.

SAN DIEGO’S FINEST

ATTORNEYS

NO. 3, VOL. XXXI

Introducing Christina Denning, John Gomez, David Casey and

Ronson Shamoun — a few of the outstanding lawyers we are

featuring in this issue. PAGE 9

CHRISTINA DENNING John Gomez

David Casey Ronson Shamoun

C OV E R STO RY

15Commercial Real EstateThe ESET Building in Downtown San Diego has sold for$55 million while the Emerald Plaza hit the for sale mar-ket on April 18. Also included in this roundup is the Ex-ecutive Complex — described as one of the worsthigh-rises Downtown.

Chairman | CEORobert Page

BobPage@sandiegometro.com

PublisherRebeca Page

RebecaPage@sandiegometro.com

Managing EditorManny Cruz

Manny@sandiegometro.com

Graphic DesignerChristopher Baker

cbaker@sandiegometro.com

Photography/IllustrationEric Peters

David Rottenberg

Contributing WritersCecilia BucknerAdriana Cara

Michael DenzingerCourtney Dwyer

Meagan GarlandManny Lopez

Colette MauzeralleCynthia Morgan-Reed

Delle Willett

AdvertisingSALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR

Rebeca Page

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SD METRO magazine is published by REP Publishing, Inc.The entire contents of SD METRO is copyrighted, 2015,by REP Publishing, Inc. Reporduction in whole or in partis prohibited without prior written consent. All rights re-served. All editorial and advertising inquires can bemade by calling or writing to the above. Editorial andad deadline is the 24th of the month preceding themonth of publicaion. Mail subscriptions of SD METRO areavailable for $50 a year for addresses within the UnitedStates. A PDF version of this issue is available atsandiegometro.com Additional information, includingpast articles, online-only content and the Daily BusinessReport can be found at sandiegometro.com. Forreprints or plaques of articles published in SD METRO ,please call Rebeca Page at 858-461-4484

All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the FairHousing Act which makes it illegal to advertise “any Prefernce lim-itation or discriminatin based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap,familial status, or national orgigin, or an intention, to make any pref-erence, limitation or discrimination. “Familial status includes childrenunder the age of 18 living wit hparents or legal custodians; preg-nant women and people securing custody of children under 18.This magazine will not knowingly accept any advertising for real es-tate which in in violation of this law. Our readers are hereby in-formed that all dwellings advertised in this magazine are availableon an equal opportunity basis. To complain of discrimination callHUD Toll-Free at 1-800-669-9777. Th Toll-free telephone number forthe hearing impaired is 1-800-927-9275.

Read us online:sandiegometro.com

ON THE COVER:

Tribute to AttorneysIn this issue we are featuring a group of San Diego attorneys who are dedicated to the law and their profession. Among them is Heather Riley(pictured). See Page 9

2016 | ISSUE 2 Volume XXXII

Our mission is to always provide quality journalism for our readers by being

fair, accurate and ethical and a credible resource for our advertisers.

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SBA Announces Small BusinessAward WinnersSam Mousavi, president and CEO of DigitalPro Inc. ofPoway (pictured), is this year’s Small Business Person ofthe Year. He and other small business owners will be hon-ored by the SBA at a May 5 luncheon. Meet the win-ners.

12

Signs Help in Navigating DowntownResidents and visitors will have an easier time navigat-ing Downtown San Diego by foot, car or bike afterCivic San Diego installed more than 200 new wayfind-ing signs at a cost of $1.9 million.

19

The Cost of Workers CompInsurance executive Jeff Cavignac (pictured) explainsthe real cost of Workers’ Compensation — often anemployer’s single most expensive line of coverage.There are, says Cavignac, significant indirect costs notcovered by insurance.

18

TravelAnderson Valley in Mendocino County might easily re-mind some of an earlier Napa Valley. It is rural and un-crowded. The valley is home to 30 wineries andapproximately 40 grape growers. Small though it maybe, it continually grows in stature. One reason is LulaCellars, a Gold Medal award-winning winery.

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SAN DIEGOSCENE

General Atomics’ Predator XP. (Courtesy General Atomics)

India is in talks with the United States to purchase 40 PredatorXP surveillance drones made in San Diego to help monitor its bor-ders with Pakistan and China, officials said.

India is trying to equip the military with more unmanned tech-nologies to gather intelligence as well as boost its firepower alongthe vast land borders. It also wants a closer eye on the IndianOcean.

New Delhi has already acquired surveillance drones from Israelto monitor the mountains of Kashmir, a region disputed by the nu-clear-armed South Asian rivals and the cause of two of their threewars.

As defense ties deepen with the United States, which sees Indiaas a counterweight to China in the region, New Delhi has askedWashington for the Predator series of unmanned planes built bySan Diego-based General Atomics, military officials said.

“We are aware of Predator interest from the Indian Navy. How-ever, it is a government-to-government discussion,” Vivek Lall,chief executive of U.S. and International Strategic Developmentat General Atomics, told Reuters.

The U.S. government late last year cleared General Atomics’ pro-posal to market the unarmed Predator XP in India. It was not clearwhen the delivery of the drones would take place.

The Indian navy wants them for surveillance in the IndianOcean, where the pilotless aircraft can remain airborne for 35 hoursat a stretch, at a time when the Chinese navy is expanding ship andsubmarine patrols in the region.

Moves by India to enhance its defense capabilities have in thepast provoked sharp reactions from Islamabad, where the govern-ment and military are worried about falling further behind theirbigger rival in the arms race.

India’s air force has also asked Washington about acquiringaround 100 armed Predator C Avenger aircraft, which the UnitedStates has used to carry out strikes against Islamist militants inPakistan’s northwest and neighboring Afghanistan.

But it would need clearance from the Missile Technology Con-

trol Regime group of 34 nations as well as approval from U.S. Con-gress before any transfer of lethal Predators could happen, officialssaid.

The push for the drones comes as U.S. Defense Secretary AshCarter traveled to India for talks to cement military collaborationin the final months of the Obama administration.

SA N D I EG O S C E N E

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Illumina Inc. has committed $100million in a new venture capital firmthat is strategically aligned with Il-lumina’s vision to improve humanhealth by unlocking the power of thegenome.

Illumina Ventures was establishedby Nicholas Naclerio, Illumina’s for-mer senior vice president.

The independently managed firmwill pursue investments in earlystage companies that are pioneeringnew applications of nucleic acid se-quencing, developing products thatwill expand the genomics ecosystem,and utilizing genomics to improvehuman health.

“Under Nick’s leadership, internalventure investing has worked wellfor Illumina, providing strategic in-sight and connections to key tech-nologies and channels in ourindustry,” said Jay Flatley, chairmanand chief executive officer for Illu-mina. “Participating in an independ-ent fund led by Nick that canleverage capital and know-how fromother investors who share our strate-gic interests is an even more effec-tive way for us to utilize Illumina’scapital to create incremental share-holder value.”

Illumina will be the majority lim-ited partner in the first fund with acommitment of $100 million, whichwill be callable by the fund over 10years.

Illumina Commits $100Million To GenomicsVenture Capital Fund

Scientists at The Scripps Research Instituteare storing biomedical data into Wikidata, apublic, editable database where researchers caneasily link genes, proteins and other data.

The project is intended to solve the problemwhere scientists attempt to gather data scat-tered across small databases and hard-to-search PDF files.

“It’s not that the data doesn’t exist,” said An-drew Su, associate professor at the institute.“The data just isn’t stored in a way that scien-tists can easily access.”

“Open data is vital for progress and re-search,” added Assistant Professor of Molecu-lar and Experimental Medicine Ben Good.“We need to break down those barriers.”

Su, Good and their colleagues at TSRI haveintegrated biomedical data into Wikidata.Built on the same principles as Wikipedia,Wikidata enables anyone to add new informa-tion to an open community database.

Technological breakthroughs in the last 10years have led to rapid increases in the volumeand rate of biomedical research, which in turnhas led to a rapid growth in biomedical knowl-edge. However, this knowledge is currentlyfragmented across countless resources — fromonline databases to supplementary data files toindividual facts in individual papers.

“As a research community, we spend a lot oftime searching for good resources and tryingto link them together,” said TSRI ResearchAssociate Tim Putman, who was first authorof one of the studies. “It’s cringeworthy.”

Even when databases are open to the public,current knowledge isn’t always organized in auniform way, Putman explained.

Rather than leave each research group totackle data integration individually, Wikidataoffers a new model for organizing all this in-formation.

While other Wikidata editors have addedinformation on millions of items as diverse asworks of art to U.S. cities, the TSRI team hasfocused on adding information on biomedicalconcepts.

TSRI Research Associate SebastianBurgstaller-Muehlbacher, first author on onestudy, added data on all human and mousegenes, all human diseases and all drugs ap-proved by the U.S. Food and Drug Adminis-tration. 

As a proof of concept, Putman led the de-velopment of a genome browser based onWikidata. Rather than having to develop onebrowser for every sequenced genome, thisgenome browser allows users to browse anygenome that has b een loaded into Wikidata.

“You can zoom in on a gene, click on it andthe sequence will pop up,” said Good. Thegenome browser will then link back to theoriginal Wikidata entry.

In the end, the researchers plan to have acomprehensive, uniform database that is easyto search and open to anyone who wants toadd data and link related concepts.

“We think this data should all be open,” saidSu. “This just makes intuitive sense.”

With Wikidata, Scientists Can Now Store Data that is Easily Accessed by Others

The Scripps Research team includes, from left, Andrew Su, Benjamin Good, SebastianBurgstaller-Muehlbacher and Tim Putman.

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Four scientific institutions — Universityof California, San Diego, J. Craig VenterInstitute, La Jolla Institute for Allergy andImmunology and The Scripps ResearchInstitute — have teamed up to create the“Mesa Consortium,” a new scientific hubfor the Human Vaccines Project.

Under a collaborative agreement, theMesa Consortium and the Human Vac-cine Project aim to transform current un-derstanding of the human immune systemand expedite development of vaccines andbiologics to prevent and treat many globaldiseases.

The Human Vaccines Project is a newglobal initiative that brings together lead-ing research centers, pharmaceutical com-panies and state-of-the-artmachine-learning methods to tackle theunprecedented mission of decoding thehuman immune system to accelerate thedevelopment of new vaccines and im-munotherapies against major infectiousdiseases and cancers.

“Vaccines have helped us eradicatesmallpox and nearly eradicate polio, but wehave not yet experienced the same vaccinesuccesses for global killers like HIV/AIDS,tuberculosis, malaria, cancer and other dis-eases,” said Wayne C. Koff, president andCEO of the Human Vaccines Project. “We

need new approaches to address majorgaps in knowledge, leverage recent techno-logical advances and hasten vaccine devel-opment.

“To this end, the Mesa Consortiumbrings an unparalleled and complementaryset of scientific capabilities in the areas ofimmunology, vaccines and immunothera-peutic research to the Project’s network.We look forward to major contributionstoward deciphering the key principles ofhuman immunity and ushering in a newera of global disease prevention and con-trol.”

The Mesa Consortium will carry out ex-tensive immunological analyses from theProject’s clinical research studies designedto answer specific questions about humanimmunity. The Mesa Consortium will alsoserve as the Project’s bioinformatics core.

San Diego Becomes Research Hub For New Human Vaccines Project

The Mesa Consortium will carry out exten-sive immunological analyses from HumanVaccines Project’s clinical research studies.

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Research released last week by UCRiverside found that businesses owned byHispanics are being created at a signifi-cantly faster pace than all businesses in theUnited States, California and the inlandSouthern California region.

In fact, Hispanics are proving to be theone major demographic group that is buck-ing a trend of diminished business forma-tion following the Great Recession.

Hispanic-owned businesses now com-prise 37 percent of all businesses in inlandSouthern California — Riverside and SanBernardino counties — 23 percent in Cal-ifornia and 12 percent across the U.S.

The new analysis finds that from 2007to 2012, the number of Hispanic-ownedbusinesses grew 46 percent across the U.S.,

44 percent in California, and a whopping51 percent in Inland Southern California.

Comparatively, the rate of growthamong all businesses was muchslower — 3 percent across the U.S., 5 per-cent in California, and 8 percent in InlandSouthern California.

The study by the Center for EconomicForecasting and Development at the UCRiverside School of Business Administra-tion examined data from the Census Bu-reau’s newest Survey of Business Owners,which is published once every fiveyears  The most recent survey includes dataon business owners through 2012 and wasreleased in December.

“For years, Hispanics have made up alarge and growing share of the population

and workforce of the nation, state, and in-land region,” said Christopher Thornberg,director of the forecasting center and oneof the report’s lead authors. “As a measureof socio-economic advancement, it is animportant and positive trend to see propi-etorships increasing and a healthier balancedeveloping between Hispanic businessowners and workers.”

The one negative for Hispanic busi-nesses, according to the study, is that theytend to have fewer employees and lowerrevenues. The authors say that is due to thefact that Hispanic businesses are neweroverall.

- Times of San Diego

Hispanics Now Lead Small Business Creation in California

General Atomics 1 of 4 Defense Companies Chosen to Compete for ‘Gremlins’ UAV Project

The U.S. Defense Advanced ResearchProjects Agency (DARPA) has pickedGeneral Atomics Aeronautical Systemsand three other companies for its Grem-lins project, which aims to launch volleysof small, low-cost unmanned air vehiclesfrom bombers, cargo aircraft or possiblyeven fighter jets, and recover them via aLockheed Martin C-130 transport.

Finely networked for coordinated as-saults on well-defended targets, these“gremlins” would conduct a variety of mis-sions like electronic attack or target geolo-cation, mainly as stand-ins for“conventional, monolithic platforms” suchas manned fighter jets or expensive UAVs.

Besides General Atomics, DARPawarded Phase I contracts to CompositeEngineering, Dynetics and LockheedMartin.

The proposals submitted by those com-peting industry teams “cover a spectrum oftechnical approaches”, the agency says. Theawards begin the first of three programmphases, which could culminate in a proof-of-concept demonstration “of an air-launched, air-recovered, volley-quantityunmanned aircraft system.”

According to the broad agency an-nouncement for Gremlins, posted in Sep-tember, candidate launch platforms includethe B-52 and B-1 bombers or C-130 tur-boprop. In-flight recovery is assigned to theC-130.

Each gremlin must fly out (555-926km) at high subsonic speeds after launchand loiter for 1-3 hours before turning backto the C-130 for recovery, the announce-ment notes. The flyaway cost per Gremlinair vehicle should not exceed $700,000, and

it is designed for at least 20 uses.General Atomics manufacturers mostly

large, armed UAVs like the MQ-1C GrayEagle and MQ-9 Reaper. For several years,it has been expanding its sensors, airbornenetworking and command, control andcommunications portfolios, while also de-veloping high-technology products like thehigh-energy liquid laser area defence sys-tem and electromagnetic aircraft launchsystem.

DARPA has not announced the cost ortimeline associated with Gremlins, but $15million is allocated for the current fiscalyear and another $31 million has been re-quested for 2017. Preliminary design re-views are expected in 2017, agency budgetdocuments state.

- Flightglobal

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C OV E R STO RY

SAN DIEGO’S BEST AT TORNEYS 2016David S. CaseyDavid Casey is managing partner of CaseyGerry, the oldest plaintiffs’ firm in San Diego. His career spans more than 40 years.His legal skills and landmark cases have had far-reaching consequences, impacting both consumers and the legal community.He was appointed to the national VCW Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee overseeing litigationtargeting Volkswagen over its diesel emissions scandal. He also serves on the Plaintiffs Steering Committee which oversees thenational MDL against the National Football League. In the past few years he has helped obtain many millions in successfulresults for clients in a complex range of cases that relate to aviation, maritime, premises liability, faulty equipment, governmenttort claims, complex motorcycle accidents, trucking and automobile accidents.

Brian KatusianBrian Katusian is a leading tax attorney with Seltzer Ca-plan McMahon Vitek. He was recently named a share-holder at SCMV. His practice emphasizes tax law,ERISA/Employee Benefits, and tax-exempt organizations.He has been certified as a Certified Legal Specialist in Tax-ation Law by the State Bar of California. He has co-au-thored a chapter in the Continuing Education of the Bar— California 2016 edition of “Financing and Protecting

California Businesses.” He speaks extensively on tax issues to the Western Pen-sion & Benefits Council and the University of San Diego School of Law’s Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic.

Jeff ChineJeff Chine is a partner in the Land Use practice in Allen Matkins’ San Diego office and is highly regarded for his extensive ex-perience in land use and redevelopment. He has represented developers in state and federal courts against environmental groupsand opponents of development in CEQA, NEPA, Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, Subdivision Map Act, CoastalAct and other challenges to entitlements. His projects include the master planned communities of San Elijo Hills, Otay Ranchand Fanita Ranch. He recently helped secure approval from the San Diego City Council for the One Paseo mixed-use projectin Carmel Valley. He also successfully represented Sempra, the developer of an international wind energy project with wind tur-bines in Mexico and associated infrastructure necessary to transport electricity across the border.

John GomezJohn Gomez is president and lead attorney at Gomez Trial Attorneys, which he founded in 2005. He has established himselfas one of California’s most recognized and accomplished trial attorneys. Lawyers USA named him the national Lawyer of theYear. He has twice been named San Diego’s Trial Lawyer of the Year, a Super Lawyer in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and has been votedone of San Diego’s Best Lawyers by SD METRO Maga-zine in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. Since 2000, he has re-covered over $300 million in settlements and verdicts forhis clients with more than 75 separate recoveries of morethan $1 million or more. He is a graduate of Yale Univer-

sity’s School of Law and was an Academic All-American football player at theUniversity of San Diego. He is a member of the Summit Council, a nationalgroup of the country’s finest trial attorneys for plaintiffs.

Michael L. KirbyFor more than 30 years, Michael Kirby has been involved incivil litigation, trying more than 50 jury trials throughout hiscareer and obtaining total recoveries valued in excess of $275million as lead counsel. He has received multiple Outstand-ing Trial Lawyer awards from Consumer Attorneys of SanDiego (CASD). His expertise is extensive and covers a vari-ety of practice areas that involve business, partnerships, realestate and investor disputes. He is a founding partner atKirby Noonan Lance & Hoge. He is rated as a Best Lawyer

by a leading national rating service and has been named a Best Lawyer in SanDiego for 2014, 2015 and 2016 by SD METRO Magazine. Kirby has been in-strumental in growing Kirby Noonan Lance & Hoge to becoming one of themost respected litigation firms in San Diego.

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David G. WeilDavid Weil is the founding attorney of Golden State Law Group. Over the past 40 years of doing bankruptcy law he has helpedout tens of thousands of clients obtain a second chance in life by helping them file their Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 business re-organization. He has been listed as one of the top bankruptcy attorneys in the nation for 2013, 2014 and 2015, and was nameda Best Attorney by SD METRO Magazine in 2013 and 2016. He has filed over 22,000 bankruptcies in his 40-year legal ca-reer. He is a graduate of UCLA and earned his law degree from Southwestern School of Law.

Ronson J. ShamounRonson Shamoun is a tax controversy attorney with only 20 years of tax experience including 12 years in legal practice. He has re-ceived numerous awards, including honored as a Best Attorney and Metro Mover to Watch by SD METRO Magazine in 2014and a 40 Under 40 Award honoree by the magazine in 2015. He is the founding partner of RJS Law Firm. He has received theprestigious AV Preeminent rating from Martindale Hubbell, an award which recognizes an attorney’s excellence in legal ability andethical practice. RJS Law has been recognized as one of the Most Admired Companies in San Diego. Shamoun has extensive ex-perience in representing individuals and businesses before the Internal Revenue Service and the California Franchise Tax Board.

Scott WilliamsAs a partner at Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek, Scott Williams was at the forefront of one of the city’s most closely watchedlawsuits of the past year. Williams was the lead attorney representing the Plaza de Panama Committee in that group’s effort toimprove parking and traffic circulation in Balboa Park and to add new pedestrian-friendly plazas and gardens. He also prevailedin a case for S.D. Malkin Properties Inc., the developer of a beach-front destination resort for the city of Oceanside. The Malkinproject had been opposed by San Diegans for Open Government. The case is now on appeal. He was a lawyer for the U.S. De-partment of Justice before entering private practice. Williams is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard and received his lawdegree from Columbia University.

Heather S. RileyAs a partner in Allen Matkins’ San Diego office, Heather Riley’s practice involves a variety of land use and environmental mat-ters, with a particular emphasize on writ litigation. She has extensive experience with the California Environmental QualityAct and has defended numerous private clients and public entities in land use and environmental actions in both state and fed-eral courts. Most recently, she was elected president of the San Diego County Bar Association. Here professional recognitionsinclude being named one of San Diego’s 25 Most Influential Business Leaders 2016 , a Super Lawyers Rising Star and a 201340 Under 40 Award honoree by SD METRO Magazine. She is a volunteer for the Girl Scouts of San Diego.

Frederick SchenkAs a partner at CaseyGerry, Frederick Schenk concentrates his practice on product liability, serious personal injury and asbestos law.His unique knowledge in the area of automobile collision litigation was also recognized when he was selected as a consulting ed-itor for Matthew Bender’s Legal Publication. With his partner, David S. Casey Jr., he has represented the firm on the Plaintiffs Steer-ing Committee which is overseeing national MDL litigation against the National Football League. He just finished a successfultwo-year tenure as president of the Board of Directors of the 22nd District Agricultural Association, otherwise knows as home tothe San Diego County Fair, and continues to serve on the board. The position entailed overseeing operations at the state-ownedand operated fairgrounds. He is a past president of the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center.

David J. NoonanOver three decades, David Noonan has built an impressive career, representing high profile clients, receiving numerous recog-nitions and furthering the practice by frequently lecturing on best practices. He has played a vital role in securing multimillion-dollar judgments for both plaintiffs and defendants in complex cases that have involved consumer class actions, antitrust claimsand misconduct charges. He is a founding partner at Kirby Noonan Lance & Hoge. His client list is diverse and has includedAmerican’s Cup yacht races, professional athletes, Fortune 500 companies and a former Playmate of the Year. Noonan is a pastrecipient of the Daniel T. Broderick Award for trial excellence and professionalism, as recognized by four major trial organiza-tions in San Diego, and has been named one of the Best Lawyers in America for the past 15 years.

Christina DenningDenning is a partner at Higgs Fletcher & Mack. Her practice emphasizes construction law, business litigation and personal in-jury. She is an Adjunct Professor at California Western School of Law for the STEPPS program — a year-long class in pro-fessional responsibility and advanced legal writing. She is a graduate of the San Diego Public Leadership Institute, a programfor business-minded executives who are interested in exploring public leadership and discovering how their experience and tal-ent could address public policy issues.

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Gregory MarkowPartner,

Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson

HeatherJ. RosingShareholder, Chief Financial Officer,

Klinedinst

Ilona AntonyanFounding Partner,

Antonyan Miranda

John KlinedinstShareholder,

Chief Executive Officer, Klinedinst

Jonathan F. GiebelerPartner,

Hecht Solberg Robinson & Bagley

Neil B. HyytinenPartner,

Hecht Solberg Robinson & Bagley

David J. VogelPartner,

Hecht Solberg Robinson & Bagley

Dane GardenswartzManaging Partner,

Solomon Ward Seidenwurm & Smith

Juanita BrooksPrincipal,

Fish & Richardson

Lauri J. StockPartner,

Solomon Ward Seidenwurn & Smith

Roger DenningManaging Principal, Fish & Richardson

Arlene PraterPartner and Office Managing Partner,

Best Best & Krieger

William EignerPartner, Procopio

Craig SwansonFounding Partner, Crosbie GlinerSchiffman Southard & Swanson

This year’s Small Business Awards Luncheon, presented by SBAand the North San Diego Small Business Development Center andthe MiraCosta College Foundation, will be held Thursday, May 5,11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Wyndham San Diego Bayside, 1355North Harbor Drive, San Diego, to publicly honor our local smallbusiness owners and advocates.

Individual seats cost $75. Register at: www.miracosta.edu/SBA-SBDCAwards

“As America celebrates the 53rd Anniversary of Small BusinessWeek, this is an excellent opportunity to honor the small businessesthat have helped make our nation great,” says SBA San Diego Dis-trict Director Ruben Garcia. “SBA has helped well over 30 millionAmericans start, manage and grow their businesses, placing tens ofbillions of dollars in loans into the hands of entrepreneurs in allsectors of the economy.” 

Business organizations, lending institutions, chambers of com-merce and trade associations typically nominate candidates. A panelis convened at the San Diego District Office to review local nom-inations and select a winner in each of the several categories. 

SBA will honor America’s top entrepreneurs at this year’s Na-tional Small Business Week events during the week of May 1-7.This year’s theme is “SBA: Dream Big, Start Small.”

SMALL BUSINESS PERSON OF THE YEARSam G. Mousavi, president & CEODigitalPro Inc. (Poway)

DPI Direct, a Digitalpro Inc. company, pro-vides commercial printing products (such asbusiness cards, brochures, catalogs, etc.), mail-ing services, and package printing. It is a pro-motional product distributor and member ofthe Advertising Specialty Institute. DPI Di-rect is a driver of digital printing technology inSan Diego and also serve wholesale and retailclients in Southern California and nationally

through online services.DPI Direct continues to lead the innovation front. It introduced

the first HP Indigo 7600 Digital Press into local markets in 2005and also the first HP Indigo 10000 Digital Press in 2013, which al-lowed it to support clients with short runs and give them variabledata capabilities as well as many more options for their printingneeds.

Since 2010, DPI Directs sales have been growing at a rate of 12percent; net profit have doubled; and the number of employees hasgrown at a rate of 10 percent.

DPI Direct has received a number of SBA loans over the years.The most recent loan was a 504 loan for $2.3 million to purchasea new 35,000-square-foot building in the Poway Business Park.Several lending institutions have assisted DPI Direct with theirlending needs over the years, including Wells Fargo Bank, SunriseBank, Banner Bank, AmericanWest Bank, the CDC Small Busi-ness Finance and Capital Access Group.

Sam Mousavi has 30 years of management, business develop-

ment and operations experience. He founded Digital Index TabsManufacturing in 2000 and DigitalPro Inc. in 2003, after a suc-cessful career in the technology sector. His focus has been in uniquedigital technology and JIT ( Just In Time) programs. Mousavi holdsa Bachelor’s of Science Degree in structural engineering from theUniversity of Arizona.

Mousavi, believes in giving back to the communities that helpedhis company grow and does so through DPI Direct, donating printto local organizations such as the La Costa Film Festival, Taste ofRancho Santa Fe, and the Petco Foundation. He also give dis-counted print rates to many non-profit organizations such as WordAlive on an ongoing basis.

SMALL BUSINESS EXPORTER OF THE YEARGulshan “Gil” Dhawan, presidentApplied Membranes Inc. (Vista)

Applied Membranes Inc. provides completesystems, membranes and components forwater treatment, beverage production, desali-nation and other applications for power gen-eration, pharmaceuticals and otherapplications. The company has expertise inproviding reverse osmosis systems for drink-ing water, boiler feed water, seawater, desali-nation, ultrapure water, USP water and water

reuse. AMI has more than 10,000 commercial and industrial sys-tems in operations.

The founder and CEO of the company, Gulshan Dhawan, has aPh.D. in chemical engineering and has been active in membraneapplications for water purification, water reuse and desalination formore than 35 years.

Products are exported to almost all industrialized countries lo-cated on five continents.

Dhawan credits his international success to establishing rela-tionships, setting up distributorships and representatives, conduct-ing seminars and participating in trade shows. He has worked withthe U.S. Commercial Service and U.S. Trade Department to buildhis business. An additional business development strategy has in-corporated Applied Membranes client’s products in their exports.

Applied Membranes has received a number of 7(a) and 504 loansfrom SBA Lenders such as: U.S. Bank; Wells Fargo Bank; CDCSmall Business Finance and Pacific Western Bank. 

The company has been in business for 32 years, has been ex-porting for 30 years and has 175 employees. AMI has seen a 20percent increase in total sales, which are $22 million annually. Muchof the growth of the company is attributed to an increase in exportsales.

FAMILY-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEARHarley and Veronica PerryPerry Plumbing, Heating & Air (National City)

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SBA SMALL BUSINESS AWARDS

Perry Plumbing Heating & Air is afamily-owned business that has beendelivering exceptional services for overthree decades. Harley Perry, president,has over 38 years of experience servingSan Diego County’s residential and

commercial plumbing needs. He is known in the industry as “theplumber other plumbers recommend” not only because of his ex-pertise in the plumbing industry, but also because of his desire topromote professionalism within the industry. He is highly respectedby his peers as an honest, reliable, community-oriented businessmanwho treats his employees and his customers like family.  

Harley’s family plays key roles in the business as well. His wife,Veronica “Ronny,” is the vice president and handles the administra-tive and financial side of the business. Their daughter, Anndrea Perry,oversees the office management and the dispatching for PerryPlumbing Heating & Air. She is the one that matches the right tech-nician with the job to be done. Their son, John Perry, is a technicianwith a certification in HVAC repair and installation. He is also aspecialist in the Nu Flow trenchless pipe relining system. MichelleSelitto-Perry is the center of the “Communications-Hub,” main-taining the daily schedules of every member of the team.

Harley has been and continues to be active in his community in-volvement in addition to growing his company. He has been activein the Bonita Optimist Club, he belongs to the Bonita Business andProfessional Association, serving as host of the Bonitafest one year.He has served on the board of the Plumbing Heating Cooling Con-tractors Association, the local trade organization, since 2002. He isalso responsible for organizing and leading the PHCC Apprentice-ship Training Program, which is a training and credentialing pro-gram for plumbing technicians. Although San Diego is his homebase, he travels extensively to PHCC meetings on a statewide levelas well as tirelessly working to improve the professionalism of histrade.

His philosophy at Perry Plumbing is “we will not do work that isnot needed to be done.”

MINORITY-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEARRegina Talamantez, president and CEORT Engineering & Associates Inc. (San Diego) 

RT Engineering & Associates is an architec-tural and engineering firm providing profes-sional engineering services in programmanagement, construction management, designsupport-utility coordination, constructabilityreview, value engineering, environmental miti-gation measures and public outreach.  RTEAassist local, state and federal agencies in deliv-ering heavy civil and high-profile projects

within the transportation, water and infrastructure industry.RTEA is a Hispanic woman-owned civil engineering firm

founded by Regina Talamantez in 2011, after she lost her job. She isa licensed civil engineer through the state of California with over 24years of experience working in the industry. Her experience is diver-sified in design, construction and program management both in thepublic and private sectors.

Talamantez and her employees have attended several SCORE and

Small Business Development Center seminars on such topics asCertification, QuickBooks, Accounting, Writing a Business Plan,Strategic business development and business financing. She feels theseminars were very informative and well worth the time.

Talamantez is active within the community and is a strong be-liever in “paying it forward.” Her objective is to reach out to highschool students within the socially disadvantaged community andempower the youth by looking at their strengths and passions andprovide them with tools for development of goals and career. She isalso an active member in organizations such as the Hispanic InlandEmpire Chamber of Commerce, the Mexican American BusinessProfessional Association–San Diego and makes STEM presenta-tions to Southern California high school and community collegestudents, sharing her story and encouraging them to pursue theirdreams.

VETERAN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEARGregg Torwick, presidentDiamond Pacific Construction Inc. (National City)

Diamond Pacific Construction does generalconstruction, demolition, masonry, grading andconcrete work. It specializes in public works,government projects and private sector proj-ects throughout the United States.

Gregg Torwick, president, started his busi-

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S M A L L B U S I N E S S

Attorney Best

San Diego Metro Magazine’in and Frederick Sche Congratulations to David S. Casey

s in San Diego.

2016s ro Magazine’ ’s enk for their inclusion

., Jr o David S. Casey

y g

1 619-238-181| North San Diego County |San Diego

CLASS ACTION, MASS TORTS AND PHARMACEUTICAL LITIGATIONSERIOUS PERSONAL INJURY, MARITIME, AVIATION, PRODUCT LIABILITY,

the Pursuit of Justice since 1947to Dedicated

www.caseygerry.com

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ness six years ago, with a single crew of six people. Over time, thebusiness has grown and contracted with the ebbs and flows of thelocal economy. Diamond Pacific now has five crews and 30 em-ployees with the ability to expand even further. They anticipatenearly doubling their revenue with steady growth in their profitmargin for 2016. Their latest margin was almost 10 percent,which is well above the industry norm of 2-3 percent.

Diamond Pacific received an SBA guaranteed loan for$200,000, through Pacific Commerce Bank in January 2015,which allowed it to expand into a 12,000-square-foog office andyard, and work out of two locations. It also received a $50,000SBA guaranteed line of credit through Pacific Commerce Bankwhich helps ease cash flow needs. Cheryl Brown, a consultant atthe North San Diego Small Business Development Center, as-sisted with the preparation of Diamond Pacific’s loan documen-tation. Gregg has also worked with Alex Galicia the veteran’srepresentative at the South County SBDC.

Torwick contributes monetary and human resources to a num-ber of veteran’s organizations in the San Diego area and focusesprimarily on helping veteran entrepreneurs find the mentorshipand guidance they need to succeed. He has been an involvedmember and served in key positions for the Elite SDVOB Net-work, and the Disabled Veterans Business Alliance (DVBA), SanDiego chapter. He also served a three-year term on the city ofSan Diego’s Equal Opportunity Commission.

WOMAN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEARGulsum Ozturk Rustemoglu, founder and presidentGEPermit (San Diego) 

GEPermit, an environmental consultingbusiness, was started as a home-based busi-ness in 2009 by Gulsum Rustemoglu. Gul-sum has 15 years of project management,planning and permitting experience special-izing in the development of federal and stateenvironmental compliance documents(NEPA and CEQA) for numerous projectsincluding pipeline studies, renewable energy

projects consisting of wind and solar projects, and community re-development projects.

Gulsum came to the United States as an international studentin 1998; graduated with two master’s degrees in English Lit. andCity Urban Planning from SDSU in 2002. After working forlarge corporate firms and upon losing her job in July 2009, shestarted and grew GEPermit to where it is today.

Due to her leadership, between 2012 and 2013, sales for thecompany grew 146 percent. Between 2013 and 2014, sales for thecompany grew another 219 percent. Now, with all the pieces com-ing together and all the right employees in place, sales were over$900,000 in 2015, almost double from the previous year. As a re-sult, the company’s net worth has nearly doubled each year (190percent between 2012 and 2013 and 175 percent between 2013and 2014).

In addition to fantastic revenue growth, Gulsum was able toincrease the company’s number of employees by 500 percebt,within the past six years.

Gulsum received SCORE counseling in finance in 2010, whichwas instrumental in helping her reach such a degree of success.

She is passionate about entrepreneurship and mentorship, and isa current aspiring speaker member of the National Speakers As-sociation.

Since the beginning of her professional city planning career,she has been involved in a variety of volunteer leadership andboard positions. Gulsum Rustemoglu is the current program di-rector for the National Association of Women Business Owners(NAWBO) San Diego chapter.

DIRECTOR’S AWARD FOR INNOVATION AND GROWTHBenjamin Hemminger, president, and Sarah Davis,founder and chief creative officer Fashionphile LLC (Carlsbad)

Since 1999, Fashion-phile has worked hard tobecome the leading andtrusted source in the sec-ondary market for luxuryhandbags. The name hasbecome synonymous withcompetitive value, and un-

paralleled customer service. Fashionphile offers the largest selec-tion of pre-owned vintage, rare, and limited edition handbagsfrom luxury designers. Once acquired, every item goes throughan extensive procedure by their skilled experts, to guarantee 100percent authenticity.

Founded by Sarah Davis — and built on a foundation of herlove for fashion and practicality — Fashionphile.com has workedhard to become the leading online reseller of pre-owned luxuryhandbags. Sarah started Fashionphile while attending law schooland has never looked back. Her revolutionary vision of a safe andeasy shopping destination for the buying and selling of luxuryhandbags has enabled thousands to purchase designer bags andaccessories at exceptional prices and value.

In 2006, Davis was joined by business partner Ben Hemminger,who evolved the brand by expanding the collection and present-ing it to a larger market. Hemminger obtained his bachelor’s de-gree from Brigham Young University and he entered the MBAprogram at UCLA in 2006 while building Fashionphile in itsearly years. Prior to his work with Fashionphile, Hemmingerworked for The Staubach Company and with Chevron Corpo-ration in its real estate divisions.

Fashionphile received an SBA 504 loan for $6.3 million,through JPMorgan Chase Bank and California Statewide CDC,in order to purchase a 30,000-square-foot headquarters facility. Inaddition, the company received a $350,000 SBA line of credit,through JPMorgan Chase Bank, to assist with growing workingcapital needs.

Since 1999, Fashionphile has grown to over $30 million in rev-enue and employs 65 people. Fashionphile now exports theirproducts all over the world and has become one of the world’sleading pre-owned luxury handbag sellers.

The ESET Building, located at 610 West Ash, sold for $55 mil-lion — or $309 per square foot based on the 177,500-square-footsize of the building.

The building is 98 leased with ESET, an Internet security tech-nology firm being the largest tenant.

Blackstone was the seller, and a newcomer to San Diego, Gem-ini Rosemont, the buyer. In 2003, Glenborough Fund V (which wasacquired in bulk by Blackstone) bought the building for $32.5 mil-lion or $183 per square foot.

Emerald Plaza, located at 402 West Broadway, hit the market forsale the week of April 18. Don’t bother touring or negotiating there,as prices have instantly been inflated by 15 percenr or more to helpjustify the $275+ per square foot that RREEF (the real estate in-vestment management division of Deutsche Bank of Germany) islikely hoping to receive from buyers.

This is standard practice for building sellers: inflate asking rentsto ridiculous levels with the hope that the “greater fool” theory con-tinues to work.

Executive Complex, located at 1010 Second Ave., is also gettingvery close to selling. Jamison Services, the owner of this building andthe Chamber Building (the two absolute worst high rises in all ofDowntown), is praying that the above theory will work here as well.

Jamison has let this building deteriorate to such a level that thereare nearly weekly episodes of major problems (e.g. elevators notworking, no hot water in the building for the last year, air condi-tioning goes out on sweltering hot days, electrical fires forcing evac-uations — even though the San Diego Fire-Rescue DepartmentHQ is located there — etc.). The city of San Diego occupies half thebuilding, with another 25 percent vacant, and the remaining 25 per-cent wondering why they haven’t moved already. The likely buyer isknown for its residential conversion prowess, but not office build-ing ownership, so we’ll see what happens.

110 Plaza, located at 110 A Street (with the Commonwealth signon the top), is nearing 100 leased leased. My client, the city of SanDiego, has a lease under review for 165,000 square feet, which willgobble up virtually every last vacant foot of space.

As part of the deal, Forester Properties is expanding and remod-eling the ground floor. If finalized, the city will occupy half thebuilding, with the federal government occupying almost all of theremaining half, between Social Security and Immigration Services.

Lastly, I want to congratulate my long-time friend Nelson Ack-erly. Nelson has been the senior leasing director for Irvine Com-pany in San Diego for the last decade, and has just been recruitedto head the region as senior vice president for Kilroy Realty, one ofSan Diego’s largest landlords (and a publicly-traded Real Estate In-vestment Trust). I wish Nelson lots of success with this new en-deavor (but Nelson, if this blog reaches you, know that I won’t go anyeasier on you).

Jason Hughes is president, CEO, and owner of

Hughes Marino, an award-winning California

commercial real estate company with offices

in San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles,

San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

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C O M M E R C I A L R E A L E STAT E

DOWNTOWN DIRT: ESET Building Sells; Emerald Plaza Next

ESET building, Emerald Plaza and 110 Plaza. (Images by Nehrams2020 and Gregoryc03 via Wikimedia Commons)

By Jason Hughes

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Engineers and visual artists at UC SanDiego are collaborating on final projects,even though they are in different classes.

This is just one of the many projectshappening in the EnVision Arts and En-gineering Maker Studio at UC San Diego.The new 3,000-square-foot studio on thethird floor of the Structural and MaterialsEngineering building provides a widerange of design, fabrication and prototyp-ing tools from 3D printers and weldingstations to a sophisticated laser cutter. It’s acreative, hands-on, experiential space wherevisual arts and engineering communitiesconverge; where students are empoweredto think, design,

“UC San Diego is one of the few placeswhere this kind of integration between vi-sual arts and engineering cannot only hap-pen, but can be sustained and expanded,”said UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K.Khosla at the EnVision dedication eventFriday.

In its first quarter of operation, morethan 400 students in engineering and vi-sual arts worked in the maker studiothrough hands-on classes and labs as wellas a few creative, independent projects.

“The spirit of collaboration and innova-tion, plus the skills that students gainthrough these unique courses are transfer-able to their careers well beyond their uni-versity years,” said Cristina Della Coletta,Dean of the UC San Diego Division ofArts and Humanities. “The cutting-edgecurriculum aligns with our division's intel-lectual priorities and the intersection ofperspective, skills, tools, creativity and rig-orous interdisciplinary research supportedby the university.”

“Our engineering and visual arts facultyare creating fantastic hands-on courses thattake advantage of the maker studio’s pow-erful mix of design and prototyping facili-ties,” said Albert P. Pisano, Dean of theJacobs School of Engineering. “We are giv-ing students new opportunities to gain theconfidence and motivation they will needto succeed in classes, internships, faculty re-

search projects and, ultimately, their ca-reers.”

Transforming EducationThe EnVision maker studio is a key

component of the Jacobs School of Engi-neering’s Experience Engineering Initia-tive, a school-wide project that aims to giveevery engineering and computer scienceundergraduate student a hands-on or ex-periential engineering course or lab eachyear— starting freshman year. In recentExperience Engineering classes, studentshave built robots, 3D-printed knee carti-lage, and designed fuel-cell-powered cars.Every project is tied to a concept or theorythey will learn later in more advanced

classes.In the spring quarter, visual arts students

interested in the new speculative designmajor will take classes in the new makerstudio. Speculative design uses several dif-ferent design technologies and methods,combining them in innovative ways. Visualarts graduate students in a working critiqueclass will also be in the maker studio dur-ing the spring quarter.

A listing of recent and upcoming classesrunning in the maker studio can be foundon the EnVision maker studio website.

A Slam DunkIn the case of the artists and engineers

with the same final project, students inStructural Engineering 1 and Visual Arts40 worked shoulder-to-shoulder duringthe winter 2016 quarter. Together they cre-ated “whole objects” that merged sculptureswith engineered support structures. LelliVan Den Einde taught the structural engi-neering class while Brett Stalbaum taughtthe visual arts course.

“We had lectures, homework and labs,but this project was the slam dunk that Ineeded,” said structural engineering fresh-man William Jablonski. After strugglingon the midterm, he found himself deeplyengaged in his team’s interdisciplinary finalproject. The team had to figure out the

Engineers and Visual Artists Transform Education In New Maker Studio at UC San Diego By Daniel Kane and Cynthia Dillon

Visual arts student Jessica Buie holds up an open source hardware logo that she 3-Dprinted in the EnVision maker studio. (Photo by Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego)

Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla inspects thesculpture and support building created andtested in the EnVision maker studio by anarts-and-engineering team. Structural engi-neering undergraduate William Jablonski(pictured) is one of the team members.(Photo by Farshid Bazmandegan)

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conditions under which the sea dragonsculpture their visual arts teammate de-signed and 3D-printed would—and wouldnot—damage or destroy the building theengineers designed and built.

“Going into the final, I had an under-standing of what the theory actually means,”said Jablonski.

Visual arts student Jeszica McPeak is partof a team that created a physical representa-tion of a collection of pixels. She liked work-ing with her engineering team in partbecause interdisciplinary teams are every-where in the professional world and in partbecause the collaboration allowed her to ex-pand and realize her artistic vision.

“The maker studio is our saving grace,”said McPeak, referring to both the access to3D printers and other building tools as wellas technical expertise from her engineeringteam, the teaching assistants and EnVisionstaff director Jesse DeWald.

While the engineering students on theteams gave oral presentations and wrote labreports, the visual arts students got real-world curation experience by preparing,launching and running an exhibit showcas-ing the sculptures. The exhibit’s final day istoday. It is open to the public from 10 a.m.to 5 p.m. in galleries 201 and 202 on thesecond floor of the Structural and MaterialsEngineering building.

Unleashing CreativityThe EnVision maker studio is not just for

hands-on classes. It will be a space wherestudent-organization teams and artists cre-ate; where student entrepreneurs build, pro-totype and innovate.

Details on the tools in the maker space aswell as information on scheduling time andupcoming workshops is on the EnVisionwebsite. The goal is to open the space to asmany student groups and entrepreneurialstudents as possible, though first priorityduring the school year will go to the classesrunning in the maker studio.

Winter 2016 classes in the maker studioincluded the structural engineering and vi-sual arts classes with the combined finalproject, a making, breaking and hackingelectrical engineering class, an experiencenanoengineering class and an introductionto bioengineering.

The EnVision maker studio is part of acampus wide strategy, borne out of the UCSan Diego Strategic Plan, to integrate de-sign with innovation and better support“making” on campus.

“Our work to strengthen design at UCSan Diego and our investment in the makerstudio are both part of a larger move to buildand support the innovation capabilities ofall our students, which includes givingfreshmen opportunities to unleash their cre-ativity,” said Chancellor Khosla.

Students in an electrical engineering class in the EnVision maker studio. Their final project:building line-following robots. (Photo by Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego Publications)

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Workers’ Compensation insurance pays for occupational injuryand illness — that’s why you buy the insurance. Often times it is anemployer’s single most expensive line of coverage. What many peo-ple fail to grasp, however, is that there are significant indirect costsnot covered by insurance.

In addition, if your company is large enough to have an Experi-ence Modification, every claim will affect your mod factor and di-rectly impact your costs.

The direct costs of a workers’ compensation claim are prettystraightforward. Generally speaking, they include the medical costsand any indemnity (wage replacement) payments. It is this dollaramount that the insurance company will pay to resolve a claim andit is also this dollar amount that will factor in to your experiencemodification.  Employers, however, also experience significant in-direct costs. 

According to a study done by the Stanford University Depart-

ment of Civil Engineering, these indirect costs often exceed the di-rect costs. For example, a fracture on average generates direct costsof $50,000.  The indirect costs, however, are estimated at $55,000. 

Indirect costs include, but are not limited to, the following:Any wages paid to the injured employee for absences not covered

by Workers’ Compensation.Wage costs related to time lost through work stoppage associated

with the worker’s injury. Time spent by administrators, supervisors, safety personnel and

many others who have to handle the claim.Cost of hiring and training a replacement worker.Lost productivity related to work rescheduling, new employee

learning curves and accommodating the injured employee.Cost to clean up, repair and replace equipment and machinery

damaged by the accident.You also have to take in to consideration the impact a claim will

have on your experience modification and your insurance cost. Let’sassume, for example, that your base premium (before application ofthe mod and other credits) is $160,000, and you have not had anyclaims. You will have what is known as a claim-free experience mod-ification. The claim free rating is a company’s best possible experi-ence modification for the year the rating is effective.

The actual claim-free rating is dependent upon the size of thebusiness and variables such as Expected Loss Rates, as determinedby the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau.  In our ex-ample, the claim-free experience mod is 66 percent, which meansyour premium for your workers’ compensation policy will be$105,600.

However, this single claim — where the fracture with direct costsis $50,000 — will drive your mod up 15 points.  When this claimhits your mod, your premium will go up by $24,000 to$129,600. This claim will stay in your experience modification for-mula for three years.  In other words, this $50,000 claim will ulti-mately end up costing you $72,000 in additional insurancepremiums.  In addition to this, you have another $55,000 in indi-rect costs making the total cost of this claim $127,000.  If your com-pany has a 10 percent profit margin, you will need to generate anadditional $1,270,000 to cover these costs.

The indirect costs you pay and the additional premiums causedby an increase in your experience modification underscore why it isso important to be proactive in your safety efforts and to develop ef-fective claims management strategies to deal with inevitable claims. 

Workers’ compensation is more like a finance tool than an insur-ance policy.  Ultimately, through the experience modification, youwill pay for your actual claims.  The only way to lower the cost ofworkers’ compensation in the long run is to lower the frequency andseverity of the claims that are driving those costs.

Jeff Cavignac is president and principal ofCavignac & Associates, a risk managementand commercial insurance brokerage firm inSan Diego.

The Real Cost of a Workers’ Compensation Claim By Jeff Cavignac

Residents and visitors will have an easier time navigat-ing Downtown San Diego by foot, car or bike after Civic SanDiego installed more than 200 new wayfinding signs at a costof $1.9 million.

Those unfamiliar with the neighborhood, or getting aroundon foot or by bike have long been faced with the challenge ofreaching their destination using outdated signs originally de-signed for drivers, the agency said in announcing the project.

“At Civic San Diego, we seek creative ways to improveneighborhood infrastructure and the quality of life in our urbancommunities. As our community grows and we continually at-tract more residents, businesses, and visitors Downtown, wesaw an opportunity to not only meet the growth objectives ofthe neighborhood, but also make it easier for everyone to nav-igate around this unique part of our city,” said Reese A. Jarrett,president of Civic San Diego. “Downtown has a wealth of his-tory, attractions and businesses, and with our wayfinding proj-ect now complete, everyone, whether they’re walking, bikingor driving can enjoy mobility with ease.”

The program was launched to replace aging signagethroughout Downtown’s eight neighborhoods. The completedproject includes a new comprehensive pedestrian wayfinding,vehicular wayfinding, destination signage, Downtown gatewaysignage and kiosks with printed maps of Downtown.

The preferred design for the signage was selected throughthree public open houses and nearly 50 stakeholder interviews.Based on this community and stakeholder input the preferreddesign was chosen to create a consistent and new Downtownbrand that could accommodate the character of its manyunique districts, and enhance community interaction, residentsocializing and business vitality.

Funding for the $1.9 million project was provided primarilythrough a reinvestment of dedicated parking-related revenuestreams through the Downtown Community Parking Districtand a $335,000 grant from the San Diego Association of Gov-ernments. Maintenance agreements were also established withthe Downtown San Diego Partnership, Little Italy Associa-tion and San Diego Unified Port District to perform upkeepof the signs in their respective areas.

See pg. 20 for more photos.

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D OW N TOW N

New Signs Help Residents andVisitors Navigate Downtown Civic San Diego project cost $1.9 million

Downtown Gateway 10th and Ash

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Kiosk in Little Italy

Vehicular Sign F & 15th Before Vehicular Sign F & 15th After

East Village Compass at Petco Park

CAST YOUR 40 UNDER 40 NOMINATIONS ON SANDIEGOMETRO.COM

5/30/2016

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T R AV E L

The next Napa Valley?Oenophiles love the question. It’s not to

dismiss getting into the hearts and mindsof wine lovers, but rather which appellationbecomes the most compelling new roadheretofore less traveled.

And therefore, into their pocket books.California is home to 76 appellations or,

AVAs (American Viticultural Areas), andanyone who has ever sipped the grapeknows about, and has most likely been toNapa and Sonoma or to Santa Barbara andthe Central Coast.

As neophyte oenophiles, we decided tostake out a journey to the ruggedly beauti-ful rolling hills and coastline of Mendocino

County. We knew very little or, more candidly,

virtually nothing about Mendocino’s winecountry along Route 128, which carves itsway from Cloverdale to the coast.

The first few miles motoring west fromCloverdale can easily discourage. The 20or so miles to Boonville are twisting curvesand hills and not a place to be stuck be-hind a double-wide.

A less than seasoned traveler or, onewithout a plan, might surrender to theroad, and turn back to Cloverdale.

Au contraire!Into Anderson Valley you drop, the skies

open and wineries aplenty are in eyeshot.

The valley is no more than 15 miles long,best known for its warm, sunny days andcool, foggy nights.

Anderson Valley might easily remindsome of an earlier Napa Valley. It is ruraland uncrowded. The valley is home to 30wineries and approximately 40 grapegrowers. Small though it may be, it con-tinually grows in stature.

So now the question is where do youstop, do you have a map or any semblanceof a guide. No, of course not. Isn’t this thefun of travel? Being adventurous.

At a pit stop in Boonville, the conven-ience store clerk, understated and apoliti-cal, when asked, said, “they’re all terrific.”

WORLD–CLASS

L U L A C E L L A R SWine adventures in Mendocino County

By Bob Page

The Lula Cellars vineyards in Anderson Valley.

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WOMEN WHOIMPACT SAN DIEGO

NOMINATION DEADLINE: APRIL 30

That’s all we needed.As the afternoon wore on and after a sip

here and a sip there, we said let’s make onelast stop before the day ends.

Coming up on the right hand side we sawa dirt road, a small shack and a sign whichread, Lula Cellars. We said why not, pulledin and met Jeff Hansen, a bear of a man,winemaker and the owner of Lula Cellars.

A fortuitous decision.Hearing Hansen’s life story of reinven-

tion made for interesting conversation.From the Art Center of Design in Los An-geles, he became a freelance photographer,doing assignments for some of LA’s largestad agencies.

“In early 1986, I decided to explore theidea of changing vocations. I was doingwell and living in Seal Beach but the oddthing was that I wasn’t happy with what Iwas doing. So I took some time off andwent to Napa Valley. I liked the slowerpace of life, put my cameras away andmoved to St. Helena,” Hansen said.

He found work at Spring Mountain

Vineyards, working for Michael Robbins,a noted winemaker whose chardonnaytook fourth place in the fabled 1976 ParisTasting. From there it was on to FloraSprings Winery after which he started hisown label, Amici Cellars.

In 2009, Hansen left the sophisticatedenvironment of Napa, moved to Mendo-cino and laid the groundwork for LulaCellars. He opened a small tasting roomnear Philo and started out with 600 casesof Mendocino Pinot Noir.

Today, Lula Cellars is a Gold Medalaward-winning winery. His Pinot Noirshave won Gold Medal, Silver Medal andDouble Gold Medal.

To make world class wine, Hansen said,“it takes world class grapes. The grapes

must be fermented in a way that allows allof their flavors to be revealed. Next, we usejust the right amount of oak barrel aging,which helps to marry the fruit flavors andacids in a harmonious blend.”

Lula Cellars is named for Hansen’s ma-ternal grandmother. “She was a remarkablewoman, a single mother after my grandfa-ther passed away. She was an inspiration toall who knew her and naming the wineryafter her is my way of paying tribute to thisnoble woman,” Hansen said.

Hansen now produces 3,500 cases an-nually, between Pinot Noir, Zinfandel,Sauvignon Blanc, dry Gewurztraminer anda dry Rose of Pinot Noir called Rosato.

You can only buy Lula Cellar wines con-sumer direct. It’s not available in stores.

Hansen’s Pinot Noir is second to noneand as Hansen says it is challenging tomake because “it only grows well in a fewcold climate areas, and you need four to sixdifferent “clones” in order to produce worldclass wines.”

Hansen has mastered the art.

Lula Cellars Tasting Room

L U L A C E L L A R S2800 Guntley RoadPhilo, CA., 95466(707) 895-3737

info@lulacellars.com

Owner Jeff Hansen in the vineyard Honey, the winery dog

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B U S I N E S S

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P R O F I L E S

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S E C T I O N T I T L ES E C T I O N T I T L E Presort StandardU.S. POSTAGE

PAIDPERMIT NO. 2325

SAN DIEGO, CA

100% Prime

NEW LOCATION: 1250 Prospect Street